The US State Department confirmed a Saudi-American citizen has been jailed in Saudi Arabia and said Washington has repeatedly raised its concerns over his detention.
Saudi Arabia in early October handed a 16-year prison sentence to Saudi-American Saad Ibrahim Almadi, the Washington Post reported late on Monday, over his tweets critical of the Saudi government.
Almadi was charged with “harboring a terrorist ideology, trying to destabilise the Kingdom, as well as supporting and funding terrorism,” the Post reported. He was also handed a 16-year travel ban.
Speaking at a press briefing, Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel confirmed Almadi's detention and said Washington first raised its concerns with Riyadh in December 2021, as soon as it was made aware of the arrest.
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“We have consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government..and we will continue to do so. We have raised this with members of the Saudi government as recently as yesterday,” Mr Patel said.
He did not say what Almadi was charged with but said: “Exercising the freedom of expression should never be criminalised.”
The news come at a time when the Biden administration is looking to re-evaluate its relationship with Saudi Arabia, after Opec+ oil producers announced oil production cuts over US objections.
Saudi government offered no information in advance on Almadi’s sentencing hearing and did not reply to repeated requests by the US Embassy in Riyadh for confirmation of a date, Mr Patel said. A request to attend the hearing was not answered until after it had taken place, he said. — Reuters